How MicroSD Express Support on Nintendo Switch 2 Could Impact Your Budget: Here’s the Scoop

After the big unveiling of the Nintendo Switch 2, we’ve got our hands on some juicy technical specs. One eye-catching detail is that the Switch 2 will require a new MicroSD type, called MicroSD Express. Hold on to your wallets because these are going to be a bit pricier than what we’ve been used to. Compared to typical SSDs, which can go for as little as 5 to 6 cents per GB, these new cards will set you back between 20 to 25 cents per GB. The steep price is partly due to the NVMe and PCIe 3.0 technologies you’d normally see on M.2 SSDs being part of these cards.

SanDisk is rolling out MicroSD Express cards at $49.99 for 128GB and the 256GB version at $64.99. These babies can hit read speeds of up to 880 MB/s and write up to 480 MB/s, with sustained writes at 100 MB/s.

Meanwhile, Lexar is bringing the big guns with cards up to 1TB. But brace yourselves—the prices are predictably sky-high for this fancy new standard.

If you’re eyeing Lexar’s Play Pro 1TB MicroSD Express card, be prepared to shell out a hefty $199.99. The 512GB model is priced at $99.99, while the 256GB comes in at $49.99. Lexar claims these cards can zip through reads at 900 MB/s and writes at 600 MB/s.

SanDisk’s cards come in at around $0.39 per gigabyte for the 128GB version, with the 256GB costing $0.25 per gigabyte. Lexar’s offerings appear to be the sweet spot financially, at a flat $0.20 per gigabyte across all sizes, and they appear to pack a little extra punch, too.

Switch 2 owners start with 256GB of storage, but there’s a catch. Even if you own a physical game, you might not get to play right away just by popping in the cartridge. Many games will need the full download and installation onto the system, using the cartridge more as a “Game-Key Card”, essentially a physical proof of purchase, driven by a need to cut cartridge production costs as NAND storage prices climb.

Take Street Fighter 6 as an example—you’ll find yourself needing to download an extra 50GB just to get started. This means the built-in 256GB won’t suffice for long. So, if you’re not interested in constantly managing your game library with every cartridge swap, grabbing one of those expensive MicroSD cards will be unavoidable.

Now, let’s dive into what makes the Switch 2’s MicroSD Express standard tick. At first glance, it could be easy to mistake these for regular MicroSD cards, but they’re quite different from the UHS-I standard of the current Switch.

The SD Association categorizes MicroSD Express cards into classes: Class 150, Class 300, Class 450, and Class 600. The numbers indicate the minimum read/write speeds in MB/s. Plus, these cards have far more pins—between 16 and 17, compared to the 8 on older cards—thanks to the NVMe and PCIe 3.0 interfaces, which theoretically allow up to 2 GB/s speeds using PCIe 4.0.

There’s still some mystery surrounding how well the Switch 2 can handle these speeds, as we’ve yet to see a MicroSD Express card reach those dizzying numbers. Joey Lopez, Director of Brand Marketing at Lexar, expressed excitement about the potential these cards have, emphasizing the readiness for the next wave of handheld gaming.

However, until we actually test these cards with the Switch 2, we’re playing the waiting game. But if you want to get a feel for what’s in store, check out our hands-on experience with the Nintendo Switch 2.